Episode 117 (24th January 1962)
Plot Harry and Len plan to race Lucky Lolita. Concepta doesn't think there's any money in dog racing. Dennis buys Elsie a bottle of tonic while picking up aspirins from the shop. Elsie is furious to read the label: "to rejuvenate the middle-aged". Florrie goes out for the evening again. Elsie and Ena are certain that she has a man. Harry needs someone to take Lucky for morning runs and asks Dennis as he works evenings. Dennis agrees in exchange for a cut of her race earnings. Florrie is really spending her time at bingo. Dennis takes his duties as dog walker seriously and knocks on the Hewitts' door at 9.30am on Sunday morning to walk her. Elsie is so astonished to see him up and about that she thinks he's only just coming home from the club. Frank is tired of working to rule at the GPO. Harry gives Lucky to Dennis, issuing him strict instructions not to let her off the lead. Florrie tells everyone she won £6.10/- at bingo and is amused to find out that people have been gossiping about her. Ena is appalled by the gamblers in her midst. Minnie shocks her with her knowledge of bingo but the pensioner explains that her mother plays it in bed. Dennis lets Lucky off her lead and the greyhound is scared off by a motorbike. Elsie forces him to confess to Harry by threatening to tell him herself. Dennis is in the middle of doing so when Lucky returns to No.7 of her own accord. Cast Regular cast *Dennis Tanner - Philip Lowrie *Elsie Tanner - Patricia Phoenix *Harry Hewitt - Ivan Beavis *Len Fairclough - Peter Adamson *Concepta Hewitt - Doreen Keogh *Florrie Lindley - Betty Alberge *Jack Walker - Arthur Leslie *Albert Tatlock - Jack Howarth *Ena Sharples - Violet Carson *Minnie Caldwell - Margot Bryant *Frank Barlow - Frank Pemberton *Kenneth Barlow - William Roache Guest cast None Places *Coronation Street *Rovers Return Inn - Public/Snug *7 Coronation Street - Back room *11 Coronation Street - Back room *Corner Shop *Bingo hall Notes *Due to the Equity actors' strike, stock film footage of a bingo caller operating a draw machine is inserted into the scene where Florrie Lindley goes to bingo. The caller is voiced by Peter Adamson, although he is not credited with the part. Additionally, the player seated next to Florrie whose shoulder and right arm are seen is a dressed-up dummy. *Frank Barlow explains to Dennis Tanner that he and his GPO colleagues have been working to rule since New Year's Day. This was a real-life, month-long dispute in January 1962 by the Union of Post Office Workers in protest against the government's "pay pause". *Dennis states that he is twenty-two years old and Elsie is over forty. Later episodes establish that they were, respectively, nineteen and thirty-eight at this point in time. Dennis first gave his age as twenty-two in Episode 11 (13th January 1961), over a year before this episode. *''TV Times'' synopsis: Len Fairclough and Dennis Tanner help Harry Hewitt to exploit and investment, with near disastrous results. The mystery of Florrie Lindley's nightly excursions is solved. *Viewing Figures: First UK broadcast - 7,650,000 homes (joint 1st place with Episode 116). Notable dialogue Ena Sharples: "It's gerrin' more like Chicago round 'ere everyday." Category:1962 episodes